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ACEs Conference Helps Consultants Grow Their Businesses

The silver lining in the cloud of losing Macworld Expo is the rise of small, focused conferences. Macworld Expo had to be everything to everyone, and niche audiences had to carve out their own events during the mainstream show.

I’m particularly looking forward to the ACEs Conference, now in its third year of serving IT professionals, ranging from independent consultants to IT directors and CIOs. I haven’t been able to attend in the past due to scheduling conflicts, but from what I’ve heard from others who have gone, it does a good job of teaching attendees not about technology, but about running their businesses. This year’s conference is on May 31st and June 1st in Phoenix.

Most consultants I know are good at the technology side of things — they’re fully capable of solving whatever technical problems their clients throw at them. Where they tend to need help is on the business side. Just as too few doctors, lawyers, and architects ever get any business instruction during their educations, it’s easy to fall into consulting without any training on topics like management, operations, marketing, and client development.

All those extras cost more, but ACEs itself is $649 and includes breakfast and lunch both days, plus dinner on the first day. It’s held in the Sheraton Grand Phoenix in downtown Phoenix. If you run an IT consulting business, I hope to see you there!

It turns out that ACEs originally stood for "Apple Consultant EntrepreneurS" but they decided to go with just the letters in case they wanted to change it to something like "Apple Computing Enterprise & Security."

Or they could switch to a jungle focus and cover "Apes Crocodiles Elephants & Snakes." :-)